Newspaper Page Text
The Week
In Review
PAGE 4—The Georgia Bulletin, May 2,1985
STATEMENT
Vietnam - Ten Years Later,
What Have We Learned?
Commenting last week on his book defending
the war in Vietnam, Cardinal-designate John
O’Connor of New York said, ‘‘I do not think my
book was a good book. I regret having published
it."
The newly named Cardinal, who is a former
Navy Chaplain, went on to say that he finally
refused permission to a publishing company to
issue the book in paperback. “I had begun to have
serious doubts about the war.”
Back in the years of conflict in that Asian
nation, far from our shores, the dialogue was
always, and sometimes bitterly so, between the
‘‘hawks and the doves." Now, 10 years after the
U.S. left it all there, running for our lives,
frustrated with our inability to understand the
monster, it seems that the hawks have become
more dove-like.
We are all sad, but glad, we are out.
“To put it simply,” says one veteran of that
war, “it was enough to make a grown man cry.”
We followed the French, believing we could
succeed where they, old hands in the business
jof colonial ' oppression, had failed. In fact, we
'/failed in every area listed for success.
Today, Vietnam is under Soviet domination.
There are 7,000 Russian “advisers” in place and
not only are they influential in the daily lives of
the people, they operate the huge naval base at
Camron Bay built by the U.S. over 10 years ago.
Into that naval area, Soviet shipping and military
material flows on a regular basis. We said that
would never happen.
Vietnam today has one of the largest armies in
the world-over 1.2 million personnel. They have
spread their presence into Cambodia and Laos.
We constantly announced to the world, during
that conflict, that these incursions would happen
without our presence. We said we were there to
prevent it all from happening.
The people of the United States 10 years ago
said, leave it, come home, we are tired of the war
and the awful losses of our young men. The war
put an end to Lyndon Johnson’s career as
President and left us all scarred to some degree.
So what have we learned as we look back and
we scan the monumental wall now erected in
Washington with those 50,000 fatal casualties
sketched on it?
The Communist threat comes closer to our
doorstep. Last week, speaking in Atlanta, Father
Theodore Hesburgh said, “Of course the
Sandinistas (in Nicaragua) are Communists.” So
now everything we said could happen in
Southeast Asia is happening in a neighboring
nation. Our politicians are becoming nervous
again. It seems there is more trouble ahead.
If we live our democratic way of life so that
the world can see its benefits we should have no
trouble. Communism thrives where injustice has
been adopted. A close look at Latin America
shows injustice at every turn of its sad history
and the hands of U.S. interests have not always
been clean in that scenario. We have a place in the
forum of the United Nations. It should be used
with more serious intent and with determined
expectations. We need more dialogue, more food
for the hungry, a new Peace Corps, greater
ingenuity in exploring human relationships. It can
be done. If we can shuttle human beings to the
far limits of space, then we can engineer peace.
We can. We most certainly can.
And looking back at the desolation of Vietnam
the motto has to be “we must.”
- NCB
NAMES AND PLACES - Pope John Paul II met April
24 with East German President Erich Honecker in the first
meeting between a pontiff and an East German head of
state. Pope John Paul welcomed Honecker, who also
heads the country’s Communist Party, to his private
library, the Vatican said, where the two spoke alone for
30 minutes. The content of their discussion was not
disclosed by the Vatican. Honecker later presented the
pope with an 18th-century porcelain statue of the
Madonna and child, a gift he said he had “chosen
personally.” It showed the Virgin with her foot on a
dragon, an allegorical depiction of her conquest of evil.
From the pope, Honecker received a papal medal and a
mosaic depicting the Colosseum. Honecker was welcomed
at the Vatican with the protocol that is normally given
heads of state, including the ceremonial presence of the
Vatican’s Swiss Guards. While the Vatican does not
formally recognize East Germany and has no diplomatic
relations with the country, it has gradually established a
working church hierarchy there. Besides the two dioceses
of Berlin and Dresden-Meissen, filled by residential
bishops, four other bishops administer apostolic
jurisdictions in East Germany.
ARCHBISHOP JOHN R. QUINN of San Francisco has
asked for prayers for the victims of AIDS and commended
groups and individuals who are ministering to AIDS
victims. “As disciples of Jesus who healed the sick .. .we,
too, must show our compassion to our brothers and sisters
who are suffering,” he said in an April 19 statement.
AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome -- has
infected more than 8,000 people in the United States, half
of whom have died. Archbishop Quinn said during one
month alone 40 people died from AIDS in San Francisco.
At highest risk for contracting AIDS are the homosexual,
bisexual and intravenous drug-user populations.
Archbishop Quinn, who said he recently visited the AIDS
unit of San Francisco General Hospital, said the suffering
of the victims was emotional as well as physical. “Very
often alienation and loneliness stigmatize the AIDS
patient,” he said. “Persons with AIDS are frequently
shunned, which adds further to their suffering.” He said
he has appointed Dominican Father Michael Lopes as
special chaplain in the archdiocese for AIDS patients and
their families, and recommended that people wanting to
help should contact Father Lopes or the Archdiocesan
Board of Ministries to Homosexual People.
AROUND THE NATION - Msgr. John F. Meyers,
president of the National Catholic Educational
Association since 1974, will resign in 1986. A search
committee has been formed to Find a successor. Msgr.
Meyers, 54, who also was acting president in 1972-74, is
resigning when his third term as head of the 15,000
member organization expires. A native of Altoona, Pa., he
was ordained for the Diocese of Dallas in 1956. He was
dean of students and director of the Newman apostolate
at the University of Dallas from 1959 to 1961, assistant
superintendent of schools of the Dallas Diocese from
1960 to 1961 and superintendent of schools from 1961 to
1967. He joined the NCEA in 1968 as executive secretary
of the department of chief administrator and in 1970 was
also named vice president of the division of fundamental
education. He continued as department head and division
vice president while serving as acting president from 1972
to 1974.
INTERNATIONALLY - Catholic taxi drivers in Taipei,
Taiwan, have been recruited as “itinerant missionaries” by
the country’s bishops, according to International Fides
Service. The program turns cabs into “Gospelmobiles”
and drivers into “evangelizers,” Fides, a Rome-based
publication of the Vatican Congregation for
Evangelization of Peoples, said in its April 13 edition. The
Taiwan bishops’ Commission for Social Development
initiated the program, Fides reported. The commission
located 68 Catholic drivers in Taipei through a parish
survey. Half of the drivers contacted met with the
commission and agreed to participate in what Fides said
could be the newest form of “itinerant missionaries.” Taxi
drivers have put stickers on their vehicles announcing
“The Lord is traveling with us” and have handed out
leaflets with a prayer for travelers. Drivers participating in
the project, in a nation where about 1.5 percent of the
approximately 18.5 million population is Catholic, have
also received cassettes with a selection of music
interspersed with Gospel sayings and faith messages to
play for their passengers.
RESOUND
Regional Encuentro
To the Editor:
The Southeastern States serving the Hispanic Catholic
apostolate, recently held their Regional Encuentro in
preparation for the III Encuentro Nacional Hispano de
Pastoral, that will be held in Washington, D.C. on August
15-18, 1985.
The Regional Encuentro was hosted by the Hispanic
community of the greater metropolitan area and was held
at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish School.
I wish to express our deep appreciation to Archbishop
Donnellan, to Monsignor Donald Kieman, F’ather Brent
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
(U5PC) 574880
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw Editor
Gretchen R. Reiser Associate Editor
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Atlanta, Georgia 3030* Foreign $12 00
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Bohan and the entire Hispanic community in making the
first Regional Encuentro a great success.
The Hispanic community opened their homes and their
hearts to the delegates that travelled from their home
dioceses throughout the Southeastern part of the country.
The entire population of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
should be proud of living the Gospel and to be a true
witness of love, charity and hope. My sincere
congratulations to the “Christian community” of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Pablo Sedillo
Director
U.S. Catholic Conference
Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs
Archbishop's Notebook
THURSDAY, MAY 2 - Confirmation/Saint
Michael’s, Gainesville.
FRIDAY, MAY 3 - Principal Celebrant/First
Friday Club Mass followed by lunch at Sacred
Heart, Atlanta. - Confirmation/Corpus Christi,
Stone Mountain.
SATURDAY, MAY 4 - Deliver Benediction at
Closing Session, National Migrant Education
Conference at Atlanta Hilton Hotel.
SUNDAY, MAY 5 ~ Leave for Chicago, attend
two-day meeting/The Catholic Church Extension
Society.
TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY, MAY 7,8 - Atlanta
Ministry to Priests Program, Convocation Days at
Catholic Center.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 - Principal Celebrant,
Mass at Annual Dinner Meeting/Archdiocesan Board
of Education at Saint John Neumann, Lilburn.